Forest School Nurseries in Corsham, Wiltshire and Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire (near Bath, Somerset)
Woodland Adventurers’ outdoor kindergarten, an outdoor preschool nursery located in Box, Corsham in Wiltshire has been graded as “outstanding” in their first Ofsted inspection.
At Woodland Adventurers, children from the age of 3 years spend all their time learning in the outdoors, in all weathers; taking a more Scandinavian-style approach to education. Children have 4 acres of woodland to learn and play in where they have campfires, use tools and feed farm animals, as well as go for hikes in the local countryside. The Ofsted report is glowing with positivity throughout, such as “all children make substantial and sustained progress consistently in all areas of learning” and “children’s physical health and emotional well-being benefit greatly from the opportunity to learn in the open air with a range of natural materials and outdoor experiences”. Chris Harvey (Director) is delighted with the “outstanding” result and is keen to recognize that this outcome is the result of a highly dedicated team who are all passionate about making a positive contribution to children’s lives through connecting them with real experiences in the natural world “it is overwhelming to achieve the result that the whole team deserve through their hard work and dedication, as well as their attention to detail in striving for excellence. Our team is proving that children’s happiness and learning thrives in leaps and bounds when they are immersed in nature”. For more information visit: http://www.woodlandadventurers.org Woodland Adventurers Holiday ClubWoodland Adventurers® runs a holiday club during most school holidays. These are held at our site in Box, Corsham, Wiltshire (between Bath and Chippenham). Activities include den building, camp fires, team games, hiking, outdoor play and more. The sessions are aimed at providing exciting and fun outdoor activities in woodland and countryside for children from 3 to 11 years.  Woodland Adventurers takes an inclusive approach where all children are encouraged to play together and support each other, big and small. We love to see children taking a more natural inclusive approach to building friendships and therefore we do not segregate children into age groups like in school - instead children will naturally migrate towards others with similar interests. Some will take a lead and be significant role models, some will look to others for guidance and support - all of which is natural and ok. Kindness, sharing and inclusivity are values that the staff will ensure all children support.
"Outstanding" Ofsted inspection report for Outdoor Kindergarten |
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| On 14th September 2017, Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten in Box, Corsham - Wiltshire was inspected by Ofsted and we are delighted to confirm that Ofsted determined that our Outdoor Kindergarten was "OUTSTANDING". A massive congratulations to the amazing team onsite - Claire, Diane, Rosie and Beth. A copy of the report can be found here: |  Ofsted OUTSTANDING |
| ofsted_report_for_woodland_adventurers_box_corsham_ey488277__1.pdf |
Excerpts from the Ofsted inspection report are here:
This provision is outstanding
What the setting needs to do to improve further
Inspection findings
- The provider and staff team are highly committed to achieving the best possible outcomes for children. Rigorous self-evaluation leads to precise plans for improvement. Leaders meticulously analyse information about children's achievements to ensure high levels of achievement for every child.
- Leaders and staff establish extremely successful partnerships with parents. They involve them in all aspects of their children's learning. For example, staff provide parents with detailed observation and assessment information about their children's development. This helps parents to have an excellent understanding of their progress.
- Staff support children incredibly well to ensure their ideas are taken into account. For instance, children have an exceptionally strong voice, with their views sought through 'thinking time' sessions for them to make decisions, or share their thoughts and ideas.
- Observation, planning and assessment processes are exceptionally rigorous. Staff know the children remarkably well and plan activities from their immediate interests. They are skilled in knowing how children learn best, in order to challenge and extend their learning.
- Children behave exceptionally well. Staff support children to develop a superb understanding of how to keep themselves safe through the positive reinforcement of expected behaviours. For example, children listen intently and gain a remarkable understanding of the safety rules for the outdoor setting.
What the setting needs to do to improve further
- To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should: continue to enhance opportunities for children to develop their understanding of technology.
Inspection findings
- Effectiveness of the leadership and management is outstanding. Safeguarding is effective. The provider and staff have an excellent understanding of safeguarding procedures and what to do to help protect children from harm. The provider has rigorous recruitment and induction procedures to help ensure the continued suitability of staff. The well-qualified staff work superbly well as a team and are motivated to continue with their professional development. For example, they have shared their ideas from training to implement excellent standards throughout the environment, which motivates children to explore, discover and learn. Children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are supported incredibly well through superb partnerships with parents and professionals to ensure they reach their full potential.
- Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is outstanding. Staff have extremely high expectations of children and use a variety of methods to identify children's interests, both in the setting and at home, to help plan for their learning. Staff very skilfully inspire children to develop a significant understanding of the world in which they live. For example, they use a globe to travel around the fire pit in order to explain how time passes and the earth moves around the sun. Staff motivate children to develop a love of stories and books, For instance, staff plan very interactive story sessions in the enchanted woodland, using toy characters from well-known storybooks. Children are inspired to initiate imaginative play to re-enact the stories.
- Personal development, behaviour and welfare are outstanding. Children's physical health and emotional well-being benefit greatly from the opportunity to learn in the open air with a range of natural materials and outdoor experiences. Staff support children incredibly well to learn about healthy lifestyles. For example, they use technology to find out about the sugar content of the food from their lunchboxes. However, staff have identified how they can, on very few occasions, extend the use of technology to enhance children's skills even further. Children are supported extremely well to develop an understanding of growth and change. For example, staff involve parents in sending electronic photographs of children, showing how they have grown from birth, to share with their friends and celebrate special events, such as birthdays.
- Outcomes for children are outstanding. All children make substantial and sustained progress consistently in all areas of learning. They concentrate at an excellent level. Children are exceptionally inquisitive and relish exploring. They use natural features they discover, such as muddy puddles, to experiment with cause and effect. Children are motivated learners. They remain engrossed and engaged in purposeful activities for incredibly long periods. Children are superbly well prepared to develop the skills for future learning and school.
Benefits of learning nature's lifecycles in the outdoors
Learning the theory about lifecycles has it place, but it can't beat real hands-on experiences of nature. Pre-school children learning in the real world. Our very friendly ewe, "Toffee" has given birth to a boy, called "Pickle" and a girl "Lilly" - names chosen by our kindergarten children.
Outdoor Woodland Birthday Parties in Box, Wiltshire - near Bath
We have rested the woodland for the winter and we have now decided to release dates for birthday parties for Spring 2017 onwards. So whether it is a nerf gun fight, capture the flag, man hunt, feeding our farm animals (pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks), going on a bear hunt or playing in our mud kitchen we are looking forward to an exciting Spring and Summer! We look forward to seeing you in the woods for lots of fun!
We know it's sometimes cold and wet (...although it is in fact beautiful sunshine today!) so we thought we would make it more appealing to get your Forest School Level 3 qualification this winter.
For our February 2017 Forest School Level 3 Ofqual accredited course we are offering £200 off the normal price of £795 - i.e. you can get qualified for only £595! Of course you will still need to complete the coursework requirements!
There are limited spaces so if you are interested please don't take too long to decide and remember to use the Promotion Code: WINTER
For our February 2017 Forest School Level 3 Ofqual accredited course we are offering £200 off the normal price of £795 - i.e. you can get qualified for only £595! Of course you will still need to complete the coursework requirements!
There are limited spaces so if you are interested please don't take too long to decide and remember to use the Promotion Code: WINTER
Box, Corsham (Wiltshire)
Our Toddler group in Box, Corsham (Wiltshire) - between Bath and Chippenham is now back on Friday mornings from 9.30am to 11.00am.
We want to enable all the children to have lots of freedom from structure with lots of positive experiences - enabling them to grow in independence and confidence - in a natural outdoor environment. Activities are deliberately varied and a mix between child-led and adult-initiated. Typical activities include feeding farm animals, stories around the camp fire, woodland activities, playing in the mud kitchen, digging, running, games, den building, playing with toys and dumper trucks. All with a high chance of getting mucky!
Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten in Box, Corsham has been awarded the highest level (Level 5) for the Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating. This highest level achievement takes into account the outdoor nature of our setting including visiting and feeding our farm animals.
https://www.outdoorkindergarten.org/food-hygiene-rating.html
https://www.outdoorkindergarten.org/food-hygiene-rating.html
Forest School Level 3 - Learning in the woods
Venue: Woodland Adventurers - Box, Corsham, Wiltshire
A lovely group of school teachers, early years teachers, early years educators and facilitators joined our Forest School Level 3 course in the woods in Box, Corsham (near Bath, Somerset) this August 2016. The weather was mixed, but generally kind, whilst we were playing in the woods and learning about the woodland environment, planning forest school sessions, delivering forest school sessions, use of tools, fire lighting and learning/development. It was lovely to see so much creativity demonstrated with all participants getting fully involved with hands-on woodland and outdoors activities. More information here: Forest School Training
Forest activities for preschools
Woodland Adventurers - Box, Corsham, Wiltshire
Always lovely to see our returning visitors. 3 and 4 year olds boys and girls. A mixture of fine weather, plenty of mud and water in the mud kitchen, petting farm animals (pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks) and playing in the woods. See you all soon.
We are having so much fun playing, exploring and learning in the outdoors. It is overwhelming when so many children are so happy to be dropped off in the morning and really would like to stay longer at pick up time. Some early quotes:
"How are your teachers?
"We don't have teachers at kindergarten. We are friends and we play together"
Child quote - June 2015
(Age: 3 years 7 months)
"My son has had the most wonderful first term at kindergarten. Vicki and Sally have been absolutely amazing and he has learnt so much already"
Parent quote - July 2015
"My son and I are absolutely loving the kindergarten. He's so happy there and Vicki and Sally are amazing. Thank you for starting it up"
Parent quote - June 2015
Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten
Based in Monkton Farleigh, near Bath - between Bathford and Bradford on Avon
Our second Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten (Forest School Kindergarten) opens in September 2015. For more details visit:
Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten based in Box, Wiltshire is now open!
We are having a lovely time playing in the outdoors! For more details and to register your child visit:
OPEN DAY for our new Woodland Adventurers Outdoor Kindergarten in Box, Corsham on Monday 18th May 2015. Book your time slot on-line by clicking on this image here:
To find out more information about our Outdoor Kindergarten (including how to register your child) please visit the dedicated website here:
Following a lovely visit from Ofsted, Woodland Adventurers Ltd is now registered with Ofsted. This is very exciting as it gives us the go-ahead to start our Outdoor Kindergarten at our main site in Box, Wiltshire. The Outdoor Kindergarten will be based on our own blend of ethos and values taking inspiration from outdoor learning, Forest Schools, Dr Maria Montessori, Te Whāriki, Reggio Emilia and the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Our own style and approach is aimed at providing positivity, fully embracing the outdoors / nature and enabling children to grow into the most amazing creative, confident, happy and inspirational young people. We believe that with self-confidence, "happiness with themselves", self-belief, high levels of self-esteem and an "up for it" / "can do" approach, these young people will have the foundations for happy, fulfilled lives where they can achieve their dreams, now and going forward. We can't wait to make this positive contribution to children's lives.
Our own style and approach is aimed at providing positivity, fully embracing the outdoors / nature and enabling children to grow into the most amazing creative, confident, happy and inspirational young people. We believe that with self-confidence, "happiness with themselves", self-belief, high levels of self-esteem and an "up for it" / "can do" approach, these young people will have the foundations for happy, fulfilled lives where they can achieve their dreams, now and going forward. We can't wait to make this positive contribution to children's lives.
Outdoor Kindergarten - Outdoor Learning and Forest School principles
We are so excited as we are now getting ready to open the doors - or more precisely, farm gates ;-) - to our new Outdoor Kindergarten in Box, Corsham, Wiltshire. Ofsted are visiting this week and then fingers crossed for announcing the opening date very, very soon :-). Our Outdoor Kindergarten approach is:
For more information visit our new Outdoor Kindergarten website here.
- Inspired by outdoor learning
- Inspired by Dr Maria Montessori
- Inspired by Te Whāriki
- Inspired by Reggio Emilia
- Inspired by the Forest School approach to learning
- Inspired to ensure that the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is delivered in an exciting, enjoyable, fun and supportive manner based on real experiences, supporting and nurturing every child
- Based on our own style and approach to providing positivity, fully embracing the outdoors / nature and enabling children to grow into the most amazing creative, confident, happy and inspirational young people.
For more information visit our new Outdoor Kindergarten website here.
We always aim to use locally sourced timber. We are pleased to be using the highest quality timber sourced from the National Trust's Stourhead site and the Longleat Estate for our on-site benches and tables. Big smiley face :-)))))!
Another fantastic holiday club day today, full of sunshine, warmth, cold, mud, hiking, den building, free play, water play, paddling, clay excavation, exploring, cooking, camp fire, pan cakes, hot chocolate, slack lines, balancing, climbing, mud kitchen and more. Fantastic day, fantastic kids and fantastic fun!
Heywood Prep (Corsham) Forest School activities
We are thoroughly enjoying our Woodland Adventures and Forest School sessions as well as our outdoor after school clubs at Heywood Prep School in Corsham, Wiltshire. Activities so far have included cooking bread, toasting marshmallows, slack lining, bulldog, team games, clay modelling, capture the flag, parachute games, den building, camp fires, learning about birds and habitats, learning about keeping warm through layered clothing, keeping active (e.g. running and walking) and fire. And there are lots more activities planned...
Corsham Primary School
It is always fabulous to see so many children returning again and again. In particular we have so many children visiting us from Corsham Primary School (from both Broadwood and Pound Pill sites) for birthday parties and holiday clubs. It is so great to see them developing and growing into confident and happy young people.
Wishing everyone a happy woodland Christmas!!!
Box, Wiltshire (near Bath, Somerset and Chippenham, Wiltshire)
Our first Woodland Nativity Event has now come to an end for 2014.
We would like to extend a warm thank you to Petra Schofield - Director and Magic Penny Productions and the whole cast / team including actors, actresses, musicians, Trigger the pony (donkey!), the sheep (Stephie and Douglas), technicians and all other key staff in all roles from preparation, lantern making and refreshments.
We would also like to thank everyone who has visited and supported Woodland Adventurers in 2014. We wish you a fabulous, magical and restful Christmas holiday period and a very happy, healthy and successful New Year for 2015.
We hope to include more outdoor theatrical performances during 2015 as well as our usual outdoor activities and some new ones too!
We look forward to seeing you all in 2015.
Best wishes from us all.
We would like to extend a warm thank you to Petra Schofield - Director and Magic Penny Productions and the whole cast / team including actors, actresses, musicians, Trigger the pony (donkey!), the sheep (Stephie and Douglas), technicians and all other key staff in all roles from preparation, lantern making and refreshments.
We would also like to thank everyone who has visited and supported Woodland Adventurers in 2014. We wish you a fabulous, magical and restful Christmas holiday period and a very happy, healthy and successful New Year for 2015.
We hope to include more outdoor theatrical performances during 2015 as well as our usual outdoor activities and some new ones too!
We look forward to seeing you all in 2015.
Best wishes from us all.
They are amazing. They love the outdoors. They love to play. They have rosy noses, pointy ears, cheeky smiles. They are bundles of fun. They are very mischievous, but also fabulous at making toys and wrapping presents. They are absolutely perfect.
 | Woodland Adventurers is hosting a Woodland Nativity Event at Quarry Hill, Box on Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd December 2014 from 4pm to 6pm. We are delighted to confirm that the Woodland Nativity will be directed by Petra Schofield - Director and Magic Penny Productions. The event will include playing in the woods, making jam-jar lanterns, experience the Woodland Nativity combined with mulled wine, hot chocolate, mince pies and ginger bread men whilst we sing seasonal favourites around the camp fire. |
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